Waist level thinking and the F3

Practice. Or use a view camera for a bit. it'll help.

 

if anything, composing in reverse will improve your composition; learn to detach "composition" from "subject" and you may be on to something. just tonight, at AGO, an exhibition of 150 prints by Sudek, the curator never noticed that 3 were rotated 90 degrees on the wall--now that's composition, so obviously more important than the subject (which sudek, granted, never had, but that's another story). personally, i frequently flip the print upside down to judge composition...

anyway, all that assuming that by "composition" you don't mean the mechanical motion of training the camera onto the subject (in which case, apply b.i.d. for two weeks or until the symptoms recede)

 

If you saw a composition you like 'in reverse' and providing there are no obvious words or numbers, why not print the negative back to front that way it will be the same as you say it.

 

Practice at home with not loaded film. After a while you will get used to it. I had same problem with TLR's - but after a while it was ok.

 

I can only confirm : things improve over time. When I first used wlf on a medium format reflex, it was unsettling. Now it is completely natural. What's weird is when I occasionally pick a digital movie camera, with live view screen, it feels really wrong, all reversed.

 

Why not stop down a bit, and your DOF will increase, making critical focus less important?

 

Once you do it long enought it feels right, a wlf is all I have really used for the last couple of years a now I can pan with them and it's normal. It's takes no adjusting in my brain to compose.

 

I know how you feel. Sometimes I look into a WLF and think it's an interesting composure just because it's reversed from what my eyes are seeing. However, as a avid medium format junkie, I agree that you eventually learn to "reverse" your thinking with a WLF as opposed to a normal prism. Just takes time is all ;P

 

Sometimes my wife accuses me of "waist-level thinking"... or just a bit south.

 

I wholeheartedly agree. It won't take you long to get used the waist level view. (Not like a view cam's upside-down-and-backward). In fact... it will actually make composition easier, IMHO. Don't be surprised if you start to view it as the "right way" rather than the reverse.

 

Just don't try to use the WLF for action scenes!

 

someone on here said a few weeks back that they were having a tough time until they thought about "dragging the subject into the frame" as opposed to moving the frame to the subject. i tried thinking about it like that and it's been easier. i haven't done a TON of WLF shooting, but i've done a fair amount on my TLRs and most recently a few rolls with my F and 105/2.5 with the WLF